This photo was taken at sunrise from atop a ridge at Bryce Canyon National Park. Smoke from a forest fire, a planned burn, had filled the desert air the day before. As temperatures of the late September Utah night dropped below freezing, the heavy smoke slowly settled into the valley below.

Realizing what was happening, we knew that the morning could offer a highly unusual photographic opportunity for this park: the illusion of early morning fog in the dry desert air. (We also remembered that, after Mount St. Helens had erupted, sunlight filtering through suspended ash had created spectacular sunrises and sunsets thousands of miles away from the source.)

Rising before dawn, we were on the rim at first light. As the sun rose, the valley below took on a mystical quality that changed minute by minute.